I honestly believe that for this review, I need to let the images do the talking. So the features and tech will be represented by images (flip over a couple of pages) – scores and scores of them followed by little descriptions. I will keep the lead text limited to the engine, performance and some interesting facts about the new car. Once I have shown you to the caricature of the S-Class, I plan to invite you inside the cabin and take you through all the wonders of its impressive character in great details. You’ll see lots of pages in this review, and I insist you flip through all of them to understand this truly outstanding piece of machine in the way it deserves to be understood.
Let’s start with the engine. The S500 we drove is propelled by a 4.7 liter 8-Cylinder V-engine. There are 459 horses on tap between 5250-5500 rpm, along with 700 Nm of torque between 1800 and 3500 rpm. And the engine, with relatively longer ratios, has been mellowed down a little to ensure buttery smooth, jerk-free, silent power delivery. Capable of hurling this 2 ton contraption to 100 km/h from a standstill in just 4.8 seconds, that mighty engine never acts rude. The silken smooth 7G-TRONIC Plus transmission also has to play an important role in all those gentlemanly traits collectively exhibited by the engine-tranny package. Real world fuel efficiency varies from 5 to 7 kmpl depending on the amount of lead in your right foot.
So how does the car feel on the move? Well, have you ever driven an electric car? There is no sound. And these cars pull VERY strongly even from a standstill, as an electric motor delivers peak torque right from 0 rpm. The S Class feels similar – only with 10 times more powerful acceleration. Dab that throttle and the S-Class would surge ahead without making any sound, and it would pull powerfully from the very bedrock of its rev reservoir. The tranquility within the cabin is baffling, and borders on to being perturbing sometimes – is it for real, such a huge machine moving ahead with so much force with no sound inside the cabin? You run the risk of getting spooked out while driving alone on a forlorn B road.
From the driver’s seat, that bonnet looks enormous – the sheer width of it overwhelms even seasoned hands at wheel for the first few moments. And with that menacing, yet quiet response from the engine even at the slightest movement of your toe, you feel like one mighty Xerxes on his throne – omnipotent, invincible! With so much power and sophistication at hand, the most natural instinct would be to hunt for the first straight to turn this machine into what it actually deserves to be – a rocketship! But that didn’t quite happen with me in the long run – I was happy letting the S-Class glide along effortlessly – swift yet languid, rapid yet tranquil – a true automotive embodiment of ‘poetry in motion’
Chauffeur and master willing, though, the S-class wouldn’t take more than a few moments reaching its electronic limited top speed of 250km/h though. It’s one hell of a stable machine at high speeds. It’s absolutely planted on the tar, in an unusually unshakeable manner. Taking sweeping corners at some really nasty speeds is an awfully simple affair. A few extremely sharp maneuvers in some tricky conditions wiped the tiniest doubts we may have had in our corrupted mind about the capabilities of the hardware and software controlling the new S-Class’s dynamics. The steering is well weighted, and while there is some bit of bulkiness to be felt while charging hard around bends, the S-class handles bafflingly well for the Goliath it is.
As regards ride quality, the headline news about the S 500 is its Airmatic suspension and the optional Magic Body Control feature. Unfortunately the latter is not available in India, but since it’s a cutting edge tech, we’ll let you know how it works. Unlike the conventional suspension systems which ‘react’ to road surfaces on coming in contact with them, the Magic Body Control pre scans the road ahead and prepares the air-suspension in advanced to deal with the surface in the best manner possible.
The system employs a stereo camera positioned behind the windscreen. It measures the road up to 15 metres in front of the vehicle and with a height measurement accuracy of more than around 3 millimetres. Based on this, the active suspension is able to make the damping harsher or softer in advance and individually for each separate wheel. The system is known to enhance the ride quality substantially in real world conditions at speeds upto 130 km/h.
Unfortunately, some Jurassic laws in India prohibiting some radio frequencies from civilian use have ensured that the technology could not be introduced on the India S-Class. What a shame, for this is the country where the tech could actually be put to good use.
Even without the Magic Body Control, the air suspension on the S-Class provides easily the best ride you could expect from a road going automobile. There are two modes to choose from, Sport and Comfort. Even the stiffer Sport mode is very comfortable, with the Comfort mode setting new benchmarks for the ability of suspension systems to soak up undulations. There is an additional feature to raise ride height to enhance clearance on extra rough roads.
The cabin of the new S-Class has to be the most exquisitely crafted on any automobile we have seen thus far. You see, the new S-Class now shoulders the dual responsibility of holding aloft its own, as well as now defunct Maybach’s beacon. The Rolls-Royce rivaling Maybach is no mean feat to match, and thus, the new S-Class’s cabin had to be something exceptional. To achieve this, those M-B blokes back there in Germany were out on a mission while designing this cabin from inside – to attain unprecedented excellence in terms of cabin design, quality and craftsmanship.
To keep the quality and opulence levels at the highest level, use of plastics visible to the naked eyes was forbidden. High quality, expensive materials like metal, leather and glass was put to use to form the terrific interior of the S-Class which features a fresh new design, with a wraparound dash and door inlays. There is a charming new steering wheel at work, with two spokes and an alluring Mercedes-Benz lettering at the bottom. The cabin doesn’t have a single bulb, with LEDs doing lighting duties all around. For interior lighting, you have seven different colors, five dimming levels, and four dimming zones to choose from.
There are no analogue clocks inside the S-Class. The only real needles you get to see are on the elegant looking clock mounted on the center of the dashboard. Two large hi resolution screens serve all the information and menus digitally – one above the center console, and another one serving as the instrument panel. More than 3 crore lines of code were written to form the brain of this technological masterpiece.
Excellent Review!!
This is what I always wanted for a Review!! I felt like having it for the test drive in real.
Great!! 🙂